St. Cloud State Player Hospitalized

NSO NEWS RELEASE

The opening night of college hockey in Minnesota was scarred by a frightening injury to St. Cloud State sophomore Josh Luedtke, who was taken to the hospital on a stretcher after reportedly lying motionless on the ice.

“The preliminary reports we are hearing is that it at least sounds like it might not have been the worst that we had been fearing from when we were watching,” SCSU coach Brett Larson said, “But I don’t know anything more than that right now.”

The injury happened in the first period against the St. Thomas Tommies, with Tommie Media describing the play as a “shoulder to shoulder hit on the boards at St. Thomas Ice Arena in Mendota Heights.

Sean Davich of SB Nation College Hockey described the play like this:

“Then just before the first media timeout of the night, Luedtke was skating along the near boards after the puck was knocked out of his defensive zone, but was then checked hard into the glass, hitting his head and slumping to the ice. Luedtke remained down for nearly 15 minutes before four paramedics were able to put him on a stretcher and strap him down before wheeling him out of the arena and to a nearby hospital.”

Luedtke is a sophomore from Minnetonka, where he was an All-State player and helped the Skippers win the Class AA state championship in 2018. In fact, Luedtke scored the game-winning goal in double overtime to win the state title.